It Changes Everything!
by AlyssaLies28
Summary: Kuwabara is missing something Yusuke, Kurama, and Hiei have. To Kuwabara, a life is a life. And he's already living his.
1. The Decision Made

_I thought about how Kuwabara has the strongest convictions around and how the four of them inspire each other to do more than what's expected of them._

"Kuwabara, I believe you are being irrational," Kurama urged gently, worry laced tightly in his words.

"No! You are being an Idiot!" Hiei screamed in fury. Black energy crackled around his swabbed arm and saturated the air around him.

"It's not fair! I should not be given an extended life when no one else gets that kinda thing!" Kuwabara bellowed right back. He stood toe to toe with Hiei, breath sawing in and out of him in great lung full. The silence that stretched out was broken when Yusuke spoke up.

"You're different," he muttered.

"You are better," Hiei said with conviction. Never did his blood red gaze waver from Kuwabara's own blue. Kuwabara took on a look of horror at the statement. He backed away until he bumped into Koenma's desk and sat down heavily, knocking off mounds of paperwork to flutter to the floor.

"Don't," Kuwabara whispered. He looked up and pointedly looked at each of his friends. More strongly he said with venom in his voice, "Don't _eva'_ say Imma 'bove everyone else. Don't make me into a God when I am only human!"

"You have done more in a few short years than a demon could in all his centuries of being." Kurama said this as if he were trying to convince a stubborn toddler to do something. Kuwabara rounded on the red head with a vicious glare.

"Then that is enough! I've always been human, with all the expectations that comes with it, and that is enough for me. It should be enough for you too!" Kuwabara directed his last sentence at everyone gathered in the room.

"Why the Hell you bein' so thick headed for? You still gonna be a human. Just gonna live as long as a demon! Stop your bitchin'," Yusuke ground out. He huffed, stomped over to the couch, and threw himself over the back outta sight of everyone. Kurama gave a glare in Yusuke's direction. Yusuke had a way of pissing everyone off at once, which was fully achieved when Yusuke flipped the bird over the couch.

"You are supposed to be here with us!" Hiei said angrily. "You're supposed to be here with me." The achingly soft words coming from Hiei on a plea caused Kuwabara's chest to spasm in pain. He could hear the longing in Hiei's voice; see the desperate look in his eyes and the hard set of his jaw. Kuwabara brought his hands up and pushed the palms into his eyes sockets. The pressure served to curb his pounding headache and stop the building of tears. Dropping his hands back to his side, he sighed and moved to stand next to Hiei.

"Don't make this about us—"

"It is about you, so it is about us! Do not push me; I will not hesitate to push back!" Hiei demonstrated his point by roughly shoving Kuwabara to the ground. Normally when this happened Kuwabara'd be butt naked and so horny the rough treatment was an intoxicating foreplay, but in this context the gesture made him mad as Hell. He was quick to get to his feet and grab at Hiei's throat pushing him back and slamming the upper half of his body ontop of Koenma's desk. The toddler God cried out in indignation as the last of his files scattered about. Hiei merely glared overtop Kuwabara's clenched hand.

"I know you want this so we can crack heads together foreva, but I just can't change everything for that opportunity. I won't change anything! Because if I accept this then everything I've done, all the good acts and the selfless deeds, they go from being noble to being payments for something I desperately want."

Kuwabara's hand went lax around Hiei's throat. He leaned down until his face was buried beneath Hiei's left ear. Loose orange curls spilled across Hiei's cheek. The fight for Kuwabara's life extension had turned into a lovers' quarrel. Kurama awkwardly to the side blushing madly at the affection the two rarely ever showed. Koenma and Botan were busy gathering up the papers and sorting through them, while Yusuke was lying dejectedly on the sofa. Unlike Kuwabara, Keiko would never be given the chance to accept a longer life, let alone vigorously turn it down as Kuwabara was.

"I don't want to lose myself or throw away everything I believe in on this one selfish act," Kuwabara whispered into Hiei's neck as the demon wrapped a strong arm over trembling shoulders.

"You are an idiot," Hiei said flatly. Kuwabara laughed on a cry. "I would never let you become lost," he added tenderly. Though his voice and touched were caring, Hiei was glaring with all his might at Kurama. The red head had the sense to turn the other way, but he could not stop himself from physically wigging out over the PDA.

After discretely wiping his face clean on Hiei's cloak Kuwabara moved back to give Hiei room.

"You have made your decision then?" Koenma asked distractedly from his place on the floor. He'd already known Kuwabara would refuse the gift. Kuwabara looked deeply into Hiei's eyes for several long seconds. Without looking away Kuwabara confirmed his declination. He saw in his lover's eyes a pinching sorrow followed by a hardened reserve.

"As of now, my lifespan will be that of a human. Make it happen Koenma," Hiei said, steadily looking anywhere but at Kuwabara. Kuwabara spluttered a protest. "You have made your decision. I have made mine." Hiei's harsh statement effectively silenced Kuwabara and managed to quail his disgruntlement.

"I've never shortened a demon's life before. But I don't see a problem with it. Speeding up death is always much faster than postponing it," Koenma said with a serious look to his face. His thoughtful eyes flickered over to Yusuke, who'd popped up at Hiei's outta-the-blue demand. "I take it you would also like a shorter lifespan, Yusuke?"

With a wildly excited grin Yusuke vigorously nodded his head. Off to the side Kurama cleared his throat delicately. "I, too, will make this request. What better way to end the legend than on a peaceful, content note."

A quiet calm fell over everyone as Koenma settled down to fill over the necessary paperwork to grant this altercation. Yusuke, as always, ruined the moment by bringing up the latest game he and Kuwabara were going at. Insults were exchanged and the two were soon found rolling around on the floor wrestling with each other. Hiei and Kurama talked quietly about setting their affairs in order, both keeping a watchful eye out so as to avoid the tumbling duo as they worked their way around the ground.

Botan left the boys as quietly as she'd been throughout the whole meeting. Tears glided silently down her cheeks, but her eyes held a hard glint to them. Her team was set to dye an early death. Her team. She'd guided them through the beginnings of their missions and watched as they took off without her, now she would have to guide them through death much earlier than she'd have hoped.

The only thing that cheered her up was the knowledge that while life for humans was short, death was even shorter. Before long they'd be reincarnated. Slipping into the room that dealt with the rebirth process, Botan set about changing a few things. They would remember everything. And next time they'd all be demon, even Keiko. Botan smiled a sad flicker of the lips as she stepped up to the book containing the rebirth details. Holding back her long kimono sleeve, she picked up a brush, dipped it in a well of ink and began writing the happy ending her team deserved.


	2. This Is the Beginning of the End

_Oh, my! Botan created a series of events that were never supposed to happen. And this is the lead up to what the consequences are for her actions, whether everything turns out good or bad. Or maybe even a little bit of both, depending on who it's concerning._

"Yukina," Kuwabara mumbled groggily, "you don't needa see this."

The plea for her departure only drove Yukina to cling to her brother-in-law's weak wrinkled hand. She was familiar with death, she was a demoness after all. Death was the way of demons. Violence drove them to kill and they could only truly live when surrounded by death.

In his advanced age, Kuwabara was anything but frail. His skin was thinned and sagged making it easier to snag and draw blood. His eyes were clouded with cataracts, only able to stare vaguely into Yukina's hardened, sad eyes. But he was still all bulk. Muscles only just now beginning to flag in his recent inactivity.

His mind was another story. Most days he was fine, going about his day training the handful of young psychics in need of his help. On rare occasions he would wake up disorientated, a century's worth of memories and knowledge off setting whenever he would wake too suddenly. At those times Yukina would try to calm him, remind him of whom and where he was.

In the fog of his mind he would drill into her with blows meant for an unknown enemy. Always an accident, because in his confusion he flew on autopilot. Yukina never minded. How could she when one of her own was so obviously distressed. Besides, the flinches of an addled human couldn't do more than catch her off guard. Physically. Emotionally she was crushed to have to witness everything she knew and loved about her long time friend and brother slip away in those increasingly occurring moments.

Yukina had experienced the same phenomenon with Genkai right before her passing. Each blow made her cry; not with pain, but with the knowledge that soon the last of her most cherished people would be gone from her. She didn't want to be alone. Alone gave her time to fall to her nature of freezing up, of becoming a cold heartless bitch like Ice Maidens tend to do. She refused to become so embittered to the point of being capable tossing her own child from the edge of her world like her mother.

"Yukina," Kuwabara started weakly.

"No," Yukina hissed, cutting the bedridden man off. The audible grinding and protest of the bones in his hand had her backing off her tight grip.

"You didn't let me finish," he chuckled tiredly, his laughs turning into a wet coughing fit. Tears sprang to her eyes at seeing his strong body crumbling before her. She was determined to keep her gems in check even as she broke inside, wanting nothing more than to do _something_ to ease his suffering.

"Please, could you bring me a hot cuppa tea," Kuwabara murmured distractedly, eyes and mind focused on something more than Yukina had ever been able to see. "The kind with the thing in it."

"The honey tea," Yukina stated. Years spent in the company of each other and they knew what the other was trying to say even if they themselves didn't personally.

"Yeah. With the stuff."

"The sweet creamer," Yukina said sadly, knowing Kuwabara liked to drink the overly sweet creamer because it used to be Hiei's favorite. Sometimes she would even sip a cup just to remember her brother in any small way.

Yukina leaned down a brushed her lips softly across the back of Kuwabara's slack hand. She lingered a moment longer than necessary, distracted by the scent of Death clinging to his skin. Though in this moment Yukina couldn't see her, she knew by the smell so dangerously encompassing Kuwabara that Botan was present within the room.

Botan was within her true nature; Death. Kuwabara, special, wonderful, _insightful,_ Kuwabara could see the soul so raw. Yukina felt….nothing. Nothing but the ever dwindling life of the only person left with her. And with that erosion of life, she felt loneliness creeping in, waiting to strangle her with isolation and despair.

"I-" Yukina's voice cracked so bad she had to pause to clear out all that gravel of unspoken words lodged in her throat. "I'll be right back with your tea."

With a shakey move, she stumbled to her feet. A glance around the room showed that no one else was there. A quick glance down at Kuwabara's prone form told her senses they were dead wrong. Knowing she couldn't delay the inevitable, Yukina still spoke in a wobbly voice, hoping to buy even the slightest bit of time. Disgusted, Yukina knew it was more for her than for the man on the ground ready to move on. "I'll be…right back."

And she drifted out of the room at a fast clip, determined to return to Kuwabara's side while he was still able to be with her.


End file.
